Scare
by Totally-Out-Of-It
Summary: This couldn't happen. How could Clark be infected? Lex had made a mistake. He'd made a mistake but he'd never thought it would lose him Clark. It wasn't possible. It wasn't- "Help!" he shouted, even as he knelt down beside Clark's now comatose body. "Doctor! Somebody get a doctor!" Lex POV of 4x10, Scare.


**Scare**

 _This couldn't happen. How could Clark be infected? If seeing Lana had been surreal, then this was the worst acid trip Lex had ever experienced. Lex had made a mistake. He'd made a mistake but he'd never thought it would lose him Clark. It wasn't possible. It wasn't-_

" _Help!" he shouted, even as he knelt down beside Clark's now comatose body. "Doctor! Somebody get a doctor!"_

 _Lex's POV in 4x10, Scare, from Clark appearing with Lana at the hospital up until the antidote is delivered to the hospital._

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So I know I've written this several YEARS past Smallville's prime, but I just now watched Scare for myself and was disappointed that no story existed (that I could find) for the moment Clark would've collapsed from the toxin. Thus, I wrote one. Thanks to anyone still reading SV fics that takes the time to read this!

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Everything was falling apart.

The scare toxin was loose in Smallville. Lex didn't know how, but it was. The entire hospital was full of people infected, living their worst nightmares and edging ever closer to death. He was surrounded by the dying, screaming, crying masses. Machines beeped, doctors and nurses shouted to each other. Dr. Scanlan was as angry as Lex had ever seen him. Lex hadn't told anyone when the toxin was released and because of that, people were going to die. Because Lex had failed.

But no, because Lex was working on a cure. His entire team was working on a cure. Sure, the first cure had been a colossal failure, but they were making a new one. Soon they could heal everyone left in the hospital. Everyone left alive.

Well, he'd save as many as he could. That was enough.

"I need a doctor! I need a doctor!"

Clark's familiar voice cut through Lex's thoughts and he watched as the taller man pushed through the crowds with Lana in his arms, unconscious. Oh no. Lana.

The doctors took Lana away on a stretcher and both Lex and Clark watched them go. Lex couldn't believe it. Sure, the town was infected, but to see Lana, someone he knew so well, personally, infected? This was the woman that Clark loved, his business partner for a time, the face of the meteor shower of 1989. It was surreal.

A hand on his arm caused him to turn back around to see Clark, expression hard.

"Did you know about this when I talked to you earlier today?" Clark was clearly upset, but not as angry as he could've been. He wanted to give Lex the benefit of the doubt, but he was scared for Lana, and the town.

"Clark, other than Jason, I had no idea anyone outside of LuthorCorp was exposed. You have to believe me," Lex said beseechingly, as at the same time he knocked Clark's hand from his arm.

How many times could they doubt each other before it was too much? Before their friendship truly fell apart?

After a moment of searching Lex's face, Clark's expression softened. He believed Lex. Clark glanced around at the many patients and doctors and the minor chaos of the hospital, then turned his attention back on Lex. "What is this stuff?"

Lex opened his mouth to answer, but suddenly Clark looked terrified. "Clark? What's wrong?"

Clark's eyes grew wide, his body tense. His head snapped to the right as if there were something there and his breathing grew erratic. And then, just as it dawned on Lex what he was witnessing, Clark gasped out, as if in pain, his eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed.

He didn't run. He didn't cry out. He didn't scream.

He just fell. The way his big, strong body simply crumpled to the hard tile floor would stay with Lex for a long time.

Lex threw his hands out to catch Clark, but it was like trying to stop an avalanche. Clark was too heavy, and Lex wasn't prepared for it, and Clark slipped through his arms in an instant. The sound when he hit made Lex cringe, even if he did think Clark might be invulnerable.

This couldn't happen. Clark couldn't….How could Clark be infected? If seeing Lana had been surreal, then this was the worst acid trip Lex had ever experienced. Lex had made a mistake. He'd made a mistake but he'd never thought it would lose him Clark. It wasn't possible. It wasn't—

"Help!" he shouted, even as he knelt down beside Clark's now comatose body. "Doctor! Somebody get a doctor!"

Why was he calling for a doctor?! The doctors couldn't help! They could just monitor and try to slow the symptoms. They couldn't save anyone. They couldn't save Clark.

Some others, a doctor and a nurse, tried to lift Clark onto a gurney, then blinked at his surprising weight. Lex helped them, feeling in a daze. Clark was infected. Clark was living his worst nightmare. Clark was unconscious because of Lex.

"I want updates. If anything changes with him, I better get a phone call!" Lex snapped at those around Clark. Then he turned and rushed from the hospital, not caring then if he looked dignified or in control.

As he drove, breaking several laws, back to the labs, Lex's mind raced. If Clark could get sick, then maybe everything Lex had thought he'd figured out about Clark was wrong. Maybe Clark wasn't superhuman. Maybe he wasn't invulnerable. Maybe he wasn't strong. Maybe he wasn't fast. Maybe he wasn't gifted with powers. Maybe he wasn't a meteor freak like Lex.

Shit.

"How's that antidote coming?" Lex demanded as soon as he reentered the lab.

Dr. Ford looked up from the work table. "We've altered it to account for the results of the last attempt."

"You mean the fact that it killed a man instead of saving him?" Lex snapped. "Half the town is infected and suffering because of this. You have to do better than that, Dr. Ford."

The scientists were split into two groups. One group was dealing with the patients in the quarantine room, doing much like the doctors in Smallville Medical Center. They were fighting the symptoms to keep the patients alive until an antidote could be found. The other group was working furiously to create an antidote. They ran virtual tests and combined medications and theorized. It was slow work. Or rather, it was fast work, but in the situation it felt slow.

They ran every test they could think of on the cure before it was actually finished, used every simulation they could to predict how it would react to the toxin in a human body, came up with plans for half a dozen other possibilities in case this one failed and ran the tests and simulations on those possible antidotes too.

The entire time this was happening, Lex was silently damning the machines that took too long, damning the science he usually loved because it _wasn't working_ , because Clark was lying in a hospital bed and _dying_ , people were dying and there was nothing more he could do!

His phone rang. It was the CDC. They wanted full disclosure on the toxin: symptoms, how it was passed on, how long until people died, the origins, and what had been done so far to stop it. Lex told them everything he could. And then—

"Lex!"

It couldn't be.

Lex turned around and saw, against all odds, like a specter from a dream, Clark Kent. He stared, mouth open, for a moment too long. "I'll keep you updated," he said into his phone and hung up without waiting for a response. This was more important.

Clark hurried forward, his body angled toward Lex like he was all Clark needed. "You're running out of time."

"How did you get past security?" Dr. Ford demanded, furious. That meant Clark was real, not a ghost come to haunt him.

Throwing his arm out toward the scientist, Lex shouted, "It's okay!" to cut off any more inane questions. What did it matter how Clark got inside? He was there! Alive! But—

"I don't understand," Lex said as he moved toward Clark, taking in his healthy complexion and upright body, looking for signs of illness. "I left you in the hospital. What happened?"

"My parents are there now," Clark said.

Lex cursed and looked away, to the men in the quarantine zone. The Kents. At times, they'd been more family to him than his own father. They'd helped him many times. They were the reason he had Clark at all. After all that Lex did to keep them out of trouble with his father and the media and finances and whatever else, he was the one killing them.

"Clark—"

He'd meant to apologize, but Clark couldn't contain himself anymore. Words burst out of him, desperate and accusatory. "Lana, Chloe, Jason. They're all gonna die if you don't do something!"

Anger flared in Lex's gut. "What do you suggest I do?" he demanded. They were already doing as much as they could. Lex was already painfully aware of how much it just _wasn't enough_. Why did Clark have to show up and shove that in Lex's face?

Any blame fell from Clark's face instantly as he seemed to realize all that Lex hadn't said. He looked around, at the contamination room, the work tables, the people rushing around, down at his own feet, at Lex and Dr. Ford. He looked lost, and Lex wished he could cure that as much as the panic toxin.

Then Clark's eyes stopped moving. Without turning to see, Lex knew Clark was looking at the antidote they were currently cooking, their next best shot at saving anyone from their mistakes.

"Use me."

What. Use…use Clark? Use his best friend?

Clark lifted his eyes to Lex. His voice was soft, a little resigned, but not hesitant. "I want you to use me." When no one responded, he continued, more urgently. "Look, I came out of this panic state. Maybe there's something in me that can help. I'll give you whatever samples you need."

The entire time he was speaking, Lex didn't breathe. Clark. Offering himself up for exam. Offering his blood, his skin cells, his DNA, his everything. It would be a lie to say Lex had never thought about running tests on Clark. There was just so much unexplained about him. But Clark had always protected his secrets so passionately. He jumped to accusations and anger at the mere thought that someone wanted to learn more about what made him…him.

"Look, even if your immune system could offer some kind of insight, I don't know, those kind of tests take months, _years_ to analyze," Dr. Ford protested. He was right. "No. No."

Lex stood by the vials of possible antidote, staring at their blue color as if they held his answers.

Even if Clark was immune, whether by natural biology or due to some other factor, because he was an alien like Walden had claimed or simply a meteor mutant, no matter what he found out about Clark by running those tests…It wouldn't save anyone in Smallville now. Anything he learned would come too late. Could he let people die – Lana, Chloe, Clark's parents, the whole town – just to satisfy his own curiosity?

But Clark probably wouldn't offer this to him again. Not soon. Maybe not ever.

Lex pressed his sweaty wrist into his equally sweaty forehead. The pressure against both body parts helped him think. "He's right, Clark," he said, and he was sure his regret at turning down Clark's offer was palpable in his tone. "We have a new antidote we can test in a few hours."

The look on Clark's face was as if the world had ended. He edged forward, hands out, begging with his body language. God, he was begging Lex to make him a science experiment. "There's no time…"

"The antidote needs to be heated to a thousand degrees Kelvin until it clears, otherwise it's useless," Lex snapped before lowering his eyes. He couldn't look at Clark, not now. Not when all the answers were being offered and he had to keep turning them away. But he couldn't experiment on Clark. He couldn't stoop to that level. He wouldn't become his father. He wouldn't do that to his friend. He wouldn't betray Clark that way. He wouldn't!

Dr. Ford thrust a finger at Lex so fiercely he almost hit Lex. "This time, we're gonna test it first."

Lex understood the doctor's feelings. The last time, their patient had died. But he was taking it all rather personally and becoming overly emotional. "People's lives are at stake," he reminded the man. "We're running out of time!"

Dr. Ford moved to the glass wall separating them from the quarantine zone. He jabbed toward it with his fingers. "Look at them, Mr. Luthor. You look at them," he demanded. "Are you gonna point the finger and decide which of them is going to take the potentially lethal injection? Whoever it is, you could be killing them."

He was as accusatory as Clark had ever been, perhaps more so. But he was also right. The last person Lex had injected had died. So Lex looked at the sick men behind the wall. He really, truly, looked at them. Could he subject one of them to a possibly fatal antidote? Did they have family, like Clark? Were their friends worried about them? Were their friends dead? Lex didn't want to make this decision.

A loud beeping drew Lex's attention. The antidote was ready. The machine's temperature was rapidly dropping from one thousand degrees Kelvin. Nine hundred. Eight hundred. Seven. Six. Five.

Lex looked at Clark. Clark, attention still on the machine, gave a haphazard shrug, as if to say 'Well, I'll admit, it's not my best work.' Then he shot his eyes over to Lex and went still. His shoulders hunched ever so slightly, like he was trying to make himself appear smaller.

How—Clark had done that. Lex didn't know how, but Clark had finished the antidote in seconds, while Lex and Dr. Ford were busy arguing. The machine had been…super-heated….Could Clark somehow super heat air?

No. Lex had passed on learning Clark's truth. It wasn't what was important at the moment. Lex grabbed the newly completed antidote, loaded it into the injection gun, and looked up at Dr. Ford. Dr. Ford stared back at him and shook his head, not to disagree with anything but because he didn't understand. Lex looked to Clark.

He had to save Clark's family. But he couldn't risk anyone else trying to fix his own mistakes.

Clark's eyes narrowed and he tilted his head, the same way he always did when Lex had just told him something needlessly convoluted just to try and impress him. Before he could figure Lex out, Lex looked down and injected himself with the antidote.

"Mr. Luthor, don't!" Dr. Ford shouted, as Clark's eyes widened and he leapt forward, as Lex lost consciousness.

He was president of the United States of America. In effect, he was the ruler of the entire world. It was just what his father wanted for him.

But, somehow, Lex knew he was surrounded by fear. He felt it in the air, in his bones, in his soul. He was smiling, self-satisfied, without feeling the actual emotion. On the screen of the computer nearby, a nuclear launch sequence countdown showed all zeros. From outside came screams. From inside came screams. Notices of impacts appeared on the computer.

Nuclear impacts. He'd launched nuclear bombs….at the entire world.

Without anything to tell him otherwise, Lex knew. He knew bombs were landing in Korea, Iraq, the Congo, Italy, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Canada, Russia, Australia, and all over the United States. Without any evidence, he knew.

Walking outside, Lex watched half a dozen nukes fly through the air. He knew he'd sent so many to land in Kansas that it would cease to exist on a map, if any maps still existed when this was over. And the ground was covered in bones, skeletons, skulls. The world had ceased to be. He'd destroyed it. All around him was a wasteland.

And the worst part, the part that scared Lex the most, was that in the vision….He didn't care. He was actually _proud_ of the destruction. The him in the vision had smiled, had almost cried, with how pleased he was with his work, with how he'd held the world in his hands and it had turned to ash.

Lex woke with a gasp to Clark's hand on his arm and his face looking down upon Lex with worry. Breathing was difficult with how fast Lex's heart was racing. For a moment, he couldn't understand that everything he'd just seen was a hallucination.

"Clark?" he asked, feeling weak in more ways than the physical.

"Thank God that worked," Dr. Ford exclaimed. "Now let me get that antidote to the hospital."

He was off before Lex even fully realized the man was there. All he could see was Clark. It was like that day on the riverbank, when Clark had breathed life into Lex again. It was just like that. Just him, panting and wet, with Clark making sure he would live.

"Lex, you're gonna be okay."

There hadn't been a Clark in Lex's vision. He'd been all alone. Clark's voice was like a shock to Lex's system, and his heart finally began to slow. He would be alright. Clark's secrets or Clark's truths, he would be alright. The antidote worked. Everyone would be alright. And their fears wouldn't come true. Those fears weren't reality. Clark was alive. Lex wasn't going to destroy the world. The nightmare was over.

He was going to be okay.

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 _fin_


End file.
